In the Arms of Dwayna
by Ahn-Li Steffraini
Summary: Part of the Path series. Rurik and Selena are lost after an avalanche kills their escort, leaving them with only the clothes on their backs and his belt knife to survive in the harsh Shiverpeak winter.
1. Chapter 1

In The Arms of Dwayna 

By Ahn-Li

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the rights to Guild Wars. I only own a really overactive account of Guild Wars, thanks to all the friends and role players out there.

**Author's Note**: Set after _Path Left Unwandered_ and _Recovery_ but during _Windborne_. Also came to be after our D&D group discovered a way to 'port GW into a playable D20 setting… I'm an evil and cruel woman for writing this before continuing _Windborne_, I know, but this one is mentioned in _Windborne_, and while will not spoil _Windborne_, is needed to have some points explained. Obviously, given that Rurik has 'survived' Frost Gate and the Fire Ring Islands, it's also alternate timeline for the uninitiated. For those, please read _Path Left Unwandered_ and _Recovery_ before reading either _Windborne_ or this, and enjoy.

**Summary**: During the Yule of 1080 AC, on a diplomatic mission to the Dwarves, King Rurik and his Queen are lost after an avalanche destroys their escort, killing everyone but them in the process. Lost and only able to scrounge his belt knife as weaponry, and the clothing on their backs, they must survive a harsh Shiverpeak winter.

**Chapter One**

The wind was their only company, other than that of each other. They huddled under the outcropping, out of the wind and snow as it offered them small measure against the Shiverpeak's fury. He had promised her a good Yule, one spent with friends, warm fires in a cozy dwarven inn and mulled cider as only the Deldrimor could provide.

But, and he compressed his chapped and sore lips, that hadn't come to be.

With a sigh, Rurik busied himself with how he was going to figure out a way to save them both. He had to. Dying out here just wasn't an option so soon after assuming the throne. Dying would mean leaving his young son a King with, likely Barradin, a Regent to rule until the young boy grew to be a man by the Ascalon legal system's strict rules. He felt his wife hug him harder and could just barely hear the prayer. He wasn't even sure which god, or goddess, Selena was praying to.

It didn't matter. No matter how much he knew dying out here would sink Ascalon back into war he knew they likely would die out here, never to be found again. If only he could explain to his people what had happened, or even explain to himself. But there was no way to catalog the trip that was doomed from the start.

It had started out so well.

They had set out from Rin, after spending the better part of the pre Yule celebrations at Barradin's more southerly, and recently revived, estate to the east of Rin…

"How long do you think you are going to be?" asked Rurik's friend, and Duke of Rin, Barradin.

With an easy shrug, Rurik finished checking over the new recruits into the Ascalon Army. "I don't know, actually," he admitted. "I'm hoping we beat the worst of the winter blizzards through Borlis Pass through to at least Grooble's, and then we plan on taking the easier route to Beacon's if the weather holds out."

"Do you think you will?"

"Not likely—but if we have to we can turn back. Honestly I think that is exactly what is going to end up happening but we must at least try to make it," answered Rurik.

Such had been the plan but plans never did happen exactly as Rurik aimed. This one had been a disaster.

With the women safely in the carriage being pulled by yaks the vanguard was able to patrol around them. Rurik himself preferred walking out in the open air instead of riding in the carriage, but every so often his wife called him in. "You know, if you push yourself too much you won't be in shape to actually visit King Jalis," she pointed out when he came in, brushing the snow off of his new armor.

"I know. That's why I'm taking a break and allowing a change in watch," he answered, leaning back on the seat, eyes closed.

For a moment, Selena was quiet. He opened his eyes again and hazel eyes met green, and he leaned over to kiss her lips. "Amazing how you still think you can boss me about," he mused.

An amused, and delicate, snort was his answer. "As if I could. Ever since you regained your strength you've been as independent and as headstrong as ever."

"Would you have me any other way?"

"Probably not," she looked at him sideways. "For then I'd have to kill you because for being an imposter in service to the greater interests of Ascalon."

How quickly a pleasant journey could turn into an unpleasant one when she cocked her head as if listening to something distant and said, "What's that?"

"What's what?" he crinkled his brows in thought, as he tried to strain to hear what her keen hearing had picked up.

A low sound, just barely in the range of what he could hear at all, seemed to thrum. For a moment they merely looked at each other, but the thrumming sound, and feeling, became a low rumble. Looking at the shelf behind and above her, he saw that things were vibrating… rattling…

She followed his gaze, turned to look, and gasped. "By the Five Gods… it's an avalanche!" she stood and put her hand on the door just as the world became a blur of motion, a deafening roar, and the carriage was picked up and for a moment he felt the sickening pause of weightlessness.

He pushed himself off the bench and covered her with his body. With a sigh of relief he could feel the expensive Bonelace armor underneath her gown and winter cloak. For what seemed like hours they were tossed around like dice in a gambler's cup then the carriage came to a crashing halt and shattered into pieces.

Rurik tried to hold onto her as best he could, but in the end all he held in his hands was her cloak. He howled his fury at her apparent loss, and then the cascading sheet of snow sent him, too, over a cliff. The last thing he saw was the surreal view of a pine tree from above, clearly not a view meant for mortal man, as he landed in it. The cracking of branches, and likely bones, was heard, then silence as a light dusting of snow from the disturbed tree fell to the snowy ground below.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Waking hurt and for a long moment Rurik was confused. He was cold, damp. He lifted his head and looked around. He remembered the rattling, and then the avalanche. Oh Gods. "Selena!" he cried out as he pulled himself from being half buried in the snow.

It was a miracle he was alive at all, or not completely buried and crushed under the tons of snow. But he paid that no mind as he very sorely cast about looking for any sign of her or their entourage. Anxiety chewed at him. Finally he saw a feminine hand clawing at the snow and he fell to his knees, digging with his sheathed belt knife. After much work he pulled his wife from the snow and she coughed violently as the full capability to breathe was returned with the chill bite of the air. "Thank the Gods," he murmured into her hair.

When she found her voice, she pushed herself back and looked at him. "You've been hurt."

"Hit a tree from an angle no man should ever see," he laughed it off. "Are you hurt?"

"No," she answered as she checked.

She then murmured a healing prayer and he felt his ribs re-knit so he could at least breathe fully himself. Feeling much stronger than he had before he stood. "So, what do we have?" he asked. "I have my belt knife, bits of my armour and your cloak."

Which he returned to her. With a sigh, she answered, "I have my cloak, my armour and my winter clothing. Other than that, not much."

"Much as I'd hate to say it, but could you use your other talents to rustle up some aid to save the others?"

He referred to the fact that, although she was a monk, she was mostly necromancer. A Priestess of Grenth and Soother of the Passed. With a sigh, she closed her eyes and soon, digging themselves from the snow, was a small army of the stronger undead. With a quick count, they both realized that to get that many meant that there was no one to save. _At all_. Save them. They looked at each other meaningfully and she let the dead return to their rest with a small prayer to speed their souls to Grenth and the Mists. "Damn it."

His curse summed up the entire thing. "This is a disaster," she mused. "We still have the blessing of the Gods and we are still alive. That is something. However, considering this appears to be an avalanche zone, it would be prudent if we moved to someplace else."

For once in his life, Rurik followed someone elses' lead. He followed her to an area, one that was untouched by the avalanche and then looked back over the valley that was now buried in snow. Selena was surveying the horizon from their safe spot in the trees. "There. Look. You see that?"

He looked where she was pointing and hissed. "It was not a natural avalanche," he said, referring the blast mark above the trail they had been on. "Stone Summit."

"Likely - but it doesn't explain how they knew what route we'd take and when."

"Bloody hell, it was an assassination attempt from within," he realized. "And it damn near worked. By the time Jalis sent someone to find us, that blast mark would have been buried and it would have looked like an accident."

She nodded gravely. "This puts a whole new spin on things. However, we will deal with that later. Right now we have to find shelter before dark or we'll be dead by morning and they will have succeeded in their task."

Rurik nodded, already feeling the cold. "Love, I don't know what use I'll be with only a belt knife."

"You have your fire magic and I have my healing..." she shrugged. "We'll manage."

Rurik made a mental note that when it concerned women it was best to let them be right. They usually were. Especially, it seemed, when it came to mothers and wives. It was like they were bred to make almost any situation livable and survivable. It wasn't the palace, but it was a passable camp. At her suggestion, he had made rough but serviceable bows and very rough but still usable arrows. Enough for hunting for food.

The cooked rabbit that night was well worth the effort. As was the fire lit by a well aimed fireball at a dead tree they had somehow knocked over. The blaze was huge, but it kept them warm. The embers were also long lasting, and, since she had used snow to keep the fire under control, they still had plenty of wood. Then again, considering he was mostly a warrior, his magic wasn't very powerful. His version of a fireball was no larger than a handball and was nothing more than a handy fire starter.

The next morning they trapped a wolf, a wiry male. With the skills borne of a farmer raised in a farming village, she had trussed it up, skinned it and set the skin and fur to cure. It wasn't perfect as she was unpracticed, but she taught him the basics and, when the next wolf was trapped, they both had serviceable wolf fur cloaks. One large wolf had been enough for her to make fur boots, mitts, and a long coat for her, using the face and head part of the skin as her hood. Using the laces from his wrecked armour she tie-sewed it tightly and roughly together. Then she made a waist length one for him, as well as boots and mitts. Unfortunately, he didn't get a hood as she had to use every last bit available, and then some from what was left over from hers, to make something for him.

Her dress, what remained of it, and what remained of his clothes under his armour, made leggings and wraps around the legs to further keep themselves warm.

With the fur turned in, they were both in a drab brown and grey and mostly faded into the landscape. With a grin, Selena pointed out, "Well, at least if whomever tried to kill us happens by us they won't immediately think King and Queen of Ascalon. We look like a couple of woodland hunters."

"We do," he answered, shouldering his bow. He wasn't used to the weight of it and would have given anything for a sword. "It is a well known fact that the King and Queen are Warrior and Necromancer. Right now we look like Rangers. If inexperienced ones."

"I can live with that if it means we get out of this alive," she agreed with his assessment there.

Had it been Terryann they would have not looked rough at all but had bows of a good make, arrows that flew true and probably real leather armour that still kept them warm. They would have been able to cut a direct path anywhere... Selena refused to let herself get into that train of thought.

They were alive.

And they would find their way back.

* * *

**A/N**: I swear I will not take another three years to update this.


End file.
